The problem is, that no one in government, ASIC, MFAA (employees, not councillors) really knows or has any idea what it is really like being a broker or running a broker business.

It would be interesting to find out how many employees of MFAA, ASIC & Politicians have actually either run a business or been a broker. Or how many have actually written a loan for a client. My guess is a small %, probably very small %.

It is about time people in this country started to stand up for themselves and stop us being treated like mushrooms. Politicians have stuffed many industries over the last 30 years, to the point where this country will have nothing but problems mounting on top of problems for next 100 years.

Do we let them continue to stuff up another industry??

Privacy Policy is a Hugely important issue (now and going forward) and should Not be bandied around secretively, as it affects every citizen of this country.

For a start, ASIC (or someone) should step in and STOP offshore "anything" with regard to call centres, processing & similar. ALL banks, lending institutions and any other business that has "anything" to do with personal & private information of ANY Australian citizen, should NOT be allowed to have 1 employee or outsourced company offshore. Rather continue to hassle people onshore that are already doing the right thing (apart from the ones doing the wrong thing already)

I, for one, do not like my personal information available to people in offshore calls centres. Do you?

There will be more & more problems in this area, in the future, regarding our personal & private information.

When you have a Government that keeps growing it grows by setting up New Authorities that all have the supposed task of regulation and policing. They have to invent new regulation even when it is not needed. The cost of Regulatory Compliance nearly killed the EU and we are doing the same here in Australia. No competitor country in Asia has anything like the regulatory compliance that we have nor the cost. The regulatory compliance required is reaching a point where it's purpose will be extinct as business will just become to expensive and uncompetitive. Alrady we are seeing this in Hospitals, Nursing Homes etc where the focus on compliance is more important than the actual care and service provided. It is obvious that with greater regulation there will be more expense less efficient operation and productivity will just be non-existent. The number of document that we have to complete that ask for the same information which I am sure no one ever looks at is ridiculous. It is not uncommon to find that the same form asks for the same information at least two or three times on different pages. On-Line applications are the same as you move from one page to another you are asked to enter the same information. If this is not madness then I don't know what is.

Agree Bob.We are already subject to so much complaince & duplication. I dont think any Broker will disagree with you in that we are spending more time & effort making sure we are compliant & then checking & cross checking.

All small businesses need to band together and form their own political party with the aim of leaving in some regulation but getting rid of duplication and onerous red tape.Lets start the small business party of Australia......it will get the two major parties thinking and the party in power to rethink their steps. We need 1000 names. Act Now

This new law is not being rushed in. It has been debated for over 10 years, and its introduction has been a slow, long, drawn out process. There's has been plenty of time to be involved in the process, and the large banks and credit agencies have been on top of it since day one. Numerous public consultation processes occurred between 2011-2013, when the law finally passed after a lengthy parliamentary process and two Parliamentary inquiries. Brokers should be very disappointed that their industry association has not been on top of this legislative development, if that is indeed the case. If you don't have an industry association looking after your needs, create one. Privacy laws have been around in Australia for decades, and the amendments brought about by this new Act are not exactly revolutionary, so my suggestion is to ignore the fear mongering and stop wasting your time on government bashing (for example, this article suggests there is a new commissioner and new government agency created to enforce these new laws - that is complete nonsense as both have been around for many years). Go get some good advice so you can can start working on having the right systems in place for 1 March 2014. Law firms and Privacy Consultancies would be a good place to start, if your industry association isn't up to the task of providing basic guidance. My blog has some articles which may be of assistance, and there are many others: http://davidmcsimon.tumblr.com/post/70360523374/privacy-compliant-prove-it (and): http://davidmcsimon.tumblr.com/post/67510476379/privacy-management-101.